


Don't Panic

by MeganRosenberg



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Blood, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-05 23:05:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16820251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganRosenberg/pseuds/MeganRosenberg
Summary: Jillian Holtzmann learned long ago that the first and most important thing to remember in a crisis is to remain calm and logical. No amount of panic can make a gushing wound stop bleeding or undo a concussion and crying never fixes anything. When one of her inventions malfunctions and ends up getting her hurt, she must rely on remaining calm within chaos until Patty and Kevin come to her aid.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the wait. I know I mentioned to a couple reviewers of my previous Ghostbusters story that I had two more stories on the way and then I never posted them... I wrote too many stories and didn't want to be posting updates to five or six and end up posting chapters to the wrong story, so I just picked two to focus on at a time. I've just completed one of those two so this is taking its place as the second story I'm working on at the moment. After this one is complete, I'll post my other Ghostbusters story... which is longer, and more violent and emotional. This one, though it's dramatic in a way, is actually pretty light.

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CHAPTER 1

xxxxxx

Holtzmann mouthed the words to the song presently playing on the radio and swayed slightly behind her workbench as she tightened a screw in her latest invention. It was nearing completion, and she was getting pretty excited to finally be able to try it out beyond her incomplete test runs.

"Patty, do we have any more of these?" She asked without looking up as she held up one of the type of screws she was using. The invention needed eight, and it turned out she was two short.

Patty narrowed her eyes as she looked up from whatever book she was reading and stared at the screw in Holtzmann's hand. "I don't think so... You'd know before I would. I don't keep track of that stuff."

"Yeah..." Holtzmann grumbled under her breath, moving things around on her chaotic work space. She could have sworn she had enough screws for this project. She would have planned its construction differently otherwise. She could have sworn she had a whole box of them somewhere. "Neither do I... I thought I had enough..." She mumbled over the sound of rustling papers and a few metal objects clinking against the floor as they rolled off her desk. She looked down where they had fallen... It was just a couple nuts. Useless.

"Well, we could go get more." Patty shrugged.

"Nah." Holtzmann shook her head as she spotted a box of nails close to the edge of the desk, very nearly falling off. She reached toward them and grabbed a couple out of the box, causing the rest of them to spill loudly onto the floor. The nails were pretty big, but they'd have to do - for now at least. It would hold the machine together while she tested it. She could make adjustments later. She was too close to done. Having to stop to go buy more screws was out of the question.

"What are you making anyway?" Patty wondered as she looked back down at the pages in her book. "Besides a mess." She added as she nodded toward the scattered nails and nuts on the floor.

Holtzmann grinned. She loved explaining her inventions to anyone interested. Usually no one was as excited about them as she was, so she was glad Patty asked. "It's an advanced ectoplasm analyzer. You know how we've been finding the stuff in the alley by that haunted coffee shop, but we can't ever seem to find any trace of the ghost?"

"I'm not sure that stuff's not just dumpster sludge." Patty frowned.

"Well, this'll tell us. It'll tell us how long it's been there, what type of spirit we're dealing with... It's even got the capability to decipher DNA markers, so we might even be able to tell, to a degree, where the ghost originates from." Holtzmann nodded. "That part worked eight times out of ten when I tested it before combining it with the other aspects here... so we'll see..."

"That'll be cool if it works, Holtzy." Patty agreed.

"Yeah. It will. It'll save us time too with people trying to bullshit us with fake ectoplasm." Holtz agreed.

Patty laughed. "That's only happened a couple times though."

"Yeah, well... It didn't happen at all at first. Now it's happened a few times... It's bound to get worse from here. We're famous enough. People want to capitalize on it in their own way. Get their own five minutes of fame..." Holtzmann shrugged.

With a slight nod, Patty agreed. "I guess so... Anyway, I think I'm gonna go check on Kevin real quick. Nobody's checked on him in the past five minutes, I haven't heard him at all... and I'm getting nervous."

Holtzmann laughed, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "That's mean, Patty... He's a grown man. He's got a whole life outside of here without anyone supervising him. He'll survive."

"No, Holtzy. You don't understand." Patty clarified. "Erin put him in charge of cleaning the fish tank downstairs... I don't have faith either him or the fish are gonna survive it."

"Oooh..." Holtz nodded. "Yeah. You better check on him. He knows the fish still need water while he's cleaning the tank, right?"

Patty shrugged. "One would think so... but... You never know..."

"Alright... When you come back you can help me test some of my samples. I just gotta weld this piece here, put in the last couple screws... or nails for now... and then we'll be in business." Holtzmann told her friend.

"Be careful with the welding torch." Patty advised.

"Will do... Just yell up here if you need any help with Kevin." Holtzmann offered. "I know CPR. If he fell in the tank, I might be able to resuscitate him. Unless Erin wants to."

"Erin and Abby went to meet that hotel guy." Patty reminded her.

"Right..." Holtz nodded. The one they all agreed was probably nuts, but who they were humoring. (They didn't ever NOT take a call from people who believed their homes or places of business were haunted, which meant they dealt with their fair share of crazies and idiots who they really couldn't help.)

"Guess he'll have to rely on your breath of life, Holtzy." Patty laughed as she made her way out the door.

She focused back on her invention as she heard Patty walk out of the room. "Guess so..." She muttered as she narrowed her eyes at her invention. A light on it had turned on already... It was the light that was meant to indicate that a sample was inside being analyzed... but she hadn't put in a sample yet... It shouldn't have been reading anything.

She opened up the compartment where the sample would have been placed. It was empty...

"Whatever..." She grumbled, forcing the two nails into places where she had intended for there to be screws. Maybe she wasn't as close to finished as she thought... All she could do now was finish the machine and work out the kinks as needed.

She lowered her glasses from her forehead and gripped the welding torch, securing the last piece as she danced in place to the music still flowing from the radio and mouthed more of the words.

When her invention began beeping, Holtzmann stared down at it with confusion. "What are you talking about?" She whispered to the thing. Why was it already behaving like this? She hadn't even done any tests...

It beeped again.

"Stop it." She whispered, placing her hand against the side of the contraption as though in an attempt to calm it down. She hissed under her breath as her fingertips stung. It was really warm - hot even. She hoped it didn't burn through the desk, because it was certainly hot enough to burn her fingers just now.

Holtzmann flinched as the machine beeped again, much louder this time, and the bulb that had been on burst with a loud shattering sound.

Holtz closed her eyes and exhaled for a moment before shaking her head and moving the welding torch back in place. She'd just have to add the bulb to the list of things already needing fixing on this increasingly frustrating invention.

Just as she was finishing welding the last bit of the last piece, something inside the machine decided it was done existing. With a loud, startling sound the thing popped and rattled, followed by a deafening boom and a whole lot of smoke, and before Holtz knew it, she was lying on the floor against the wall.

Holtzmann squeezed her eyes shut and coughed as she felt like the air had been knocked out of her lungs. For a moment, she had to wonder what exactly had just happened. It was all so fast, and now she just felt confused and a little numb.

She blinked her eyes open and looked around herself as she breathed in breaths that were honestly a little difficult to manage. She pouted as she noticed her invention up on the desk was in several pieces, surrounded by smoke. It must have blown up... And that explained why she was here on the ground, half-way up against the wall. It had knocked her back pretty hard. That would explain the tingling, numb pain she felt in her back and head... arm, other arm... and actually, her entire body...

She groaned as she looked down at her arm, where a hole was burnt into the fabric of her shirt sleeve. Wincing as she slid the sleeve up, she looked at the rather sizable burn mark in her skin. That was undoubtedly from the welding torch. She'd gotten injuries like this before. Many times. It wouldn't be a problem.

What might be a problem though, was that her welding torch had still been very much turned on when her machine malfunctioned... She had rigged it to stay on even without her holding it - one day when she wanted to make s'mores at her desk... So it didn't turn off on its own anymore. It was probably still on, wherever it was...

She frowned and looked around the area, spotting the torch still burning, but fortunately facing up several yards away. She began crawling toward it, but gasped and nearly collapsed in pain immediately. Her shoulder all of a sudden felt like someone had stabbed it.

With a whimper, she straightened herself so that she was sitting on her legs, no longer using her arms to hold herself up. She looked down at her shoulder, where one of those very long nails she'd used in place of screws was sticking out of her.

She stared down at her shoulder with her mouth hanging open and a short, quick breath caught in her throat. "Oh fuck..." She breathed shakily as she brought trembling fingers up toward the wound.

For a moment, Holtz's brain told her to freak out. She was hurt - in a way that was a little worse than usual. There was a lot of blood. She even heard it dripping from her shoulder and onto the floor like a leaking faucet as she bent forward in pain. She wanted to cry... but she knew that wouldn't be helpful, so she took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and got back down to business. She couldn't just collapse onto the floor and sob. That wouldn't solve a thing and she knew it.

Swallowing, Holtz looked back down at her arm. The nail was very long, but at least half of it was not visible. It was in her shoulder pretty deep... and it hurt pretty bad. She could see blood darkening her shirt around the protruding object... Quite a bit of blood. Half of her sleeve was stained red by this point. How had she not noticed that before going for the welding torch?

Biting her lip, Holtzmann blinked back tears as she put her shaking fingers against the wound, trying to apply pressure to stop the bleeding while the nail was still sticking out of her arm. The blood was sticky and warm, oozing between her fingers and down her arm. Still making that sickening dripping sound as it hit the floor. She felt light-headed... But she needed to stay calm and get to the blowtorch before it caught anything on fire.

While avoiding using her injured arm, Holtzmann dragged herself to her feet, stepping toward the torch still burning as it lay wedged near the wall under one of her many work-benches. She winced as her shoe slipped on something after just one step... She just barely regained her balance without falling.

She looked down at the floor. "God..." She groaned tiredly. It was her own blood that she'd nearly slipped on. She wasn't exactly someone who got squeamish at the sight of blood, but seeing how much was there and knowing it was hers didn't exactly make her feel hopeful either.

She made her way over to the torch, crawling under the bench and turning it off and then looking back at her shoulder. Her sleeve was so entirely drenched in blood. It made her feel kind of nauseous. She needed to stop the bleeding and call for a paramedic... but she felt so tired... She must have lost a lot of blood already. She hoped she didn't pass out and bleed to death.

Still under the bench, Holtzmann put her hand against her shoulder and leaned back against the wall. Maybe she could just close her eyes for a second, regain a little strength, and then get up and go find a phone... Or at the very least, if she still felt so awful in a couple more seconds, she could call out for Patty.

Holtzmann felt herself growing even more tired as the seconds passed. Maybe it would be smart to yell out for Patty right now... If she didn't do so soon, she might not get a chance before fainting. She swallowed and pouted as she tried to press her hand harder against her injury. Blood was still finding its way out of her arm and through her fingers.

She felt tears stinging her eyes as she struggled to keep herself from crying. She was honestly beginning to feel really, really scared. Her injury was bleeding a lot. Was it enough to kill her? She wasn't sure... None of the things she was trying were slowing the bleeding. She felt more and more lightheaded and anxious with each passing second.

Inhaling a shaking breath, Holtzmann pressed harder with her hand against her shoulder and swallowed back her tears. She couldn't just lie here crying. She had to stay calm and get herself the medical attention she needed. Letting herself panic wasn't going to fix this.

She needed to just call for help. Patty would know what to do... Once the older woman was here to help her, Holtzmann wouldn't have to worry anymore. She could just let herself pass out and leave the rest to her trusted friend. Patty wouldn't let her die...

"Patty!" Holtzmann tried to shout. Her voice sounded so tiny, so strained and breathless. She let out a small whimper and pouted as she pressed her hand firmly against her shoulder and leaned her head back tiredly. Her throat felt tight and dry and she could feel that the amount of pressure she was putting against her arm was decreasing as her arm grew tired. She felt close to losing consciousness.

"Patty..." She whispered again, hearing her voice shaking. She must have waited too long. She was already too weak to shout out, too disoriented to stand back up... If Patty didn't come up here on her own very soon, maybe Holtzmann truly would bleed to death.

She felt sort of numb as her vision grew fuzzy. Her breaths seemed short and not quite strong enough. If she didn't pass out from blood loss, she might just faint due to lack of oxygen. Why couldn't she get her lungs to work all the way?

"Holtzmann?" Patty's worried voice called from the stairwell. She sounded far away, yet close, like Holtzmann was hearing her on the other side of a rushing waterfall. "What was that noise? You okay?"

Holtzmann's ears perked up. "Patty?" She called back, frowning at how weak her voice sounded. "I was just thinking about you..." She breathed, closing her eyes.

xxxxxx


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for your interest and continued support. I'm so happy there's a very active Ghostbusters fandom on this site. I can't claim to understand where you all came from when the Ghostbusters fandom on fanfiction.net is completely dead... but I'm glad you're here. As I've said, in addition to this story, I wrote another which will be published after this one... and I have some exciting news. I got an idea for yet another Ghostbusters story last week and wrote the entire thing over the weekend!! I've still got to edit it, but right now it's eleven chapters and roughly 30,000 words. I think it's a good one too. There's actual ghosts in it (something I tend to neglect considering I'm writing for a fandom with "ghost" in its name...) and it's traumatizing, and there's emotion and friendship and pain... My favorite things! So stay tuned, and thanks again for all the responses to my stories. I love you guys.

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CHAPTER 2

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"Oh my god!" Patty gasped as she made her way into the room. Everything behind the desk space where Holtzmann had been working when the older woman had left was a disaster. That wasn't necessarily cause for alarm by itself since Patty's young friend had a habit of being less than organized, but Holtzmann was no longer over there. A large puddle of her blood was. "Holtzy, what happened? Where are you?" She called out in a voice she couldn't keep from shaking as she tried to follow the drip-trail of blood to determine where her friend had gone.

"Over here." Holtzmann called from under the other work bench along the wall several paces away. Her voice sounded like she was both in pain and very tired. In fact, Patty could barely even hear her.

"Baby, what happened?" Patty breathed as she ran over to Holtzmann and knelt down in front of her. The smaller woman had propped herself up slightly against the wall, but was still very much under the bench. She had a fair amount of blood covering her arm and one hand, which she was seemingly trying to use to put pressure over her injury.

Holtzmann shook her head and closed her eyes. She looked exhausted.

"Holtzy, what happened?" Patty demanded again.

The engineer opened her eyes and stared up at her friend. She looked a little scared, but more confused and tired than anything else. "It blew up, I guess..." She answered with a shrug. Her voice sounded almost slurred and her eyes were half-closed, as though keeping them open was the hardest thing in the world for the younger woman.

"It blew up!?" Patty couldn't help but to be more worried than Holtzmann was willing to allow herself to be. "You're bleeding!" Her eyes widened as she looked closer at Holtzmann's shoulder. She wasn't just bleeding. She had a huge nail sticking out of her arm. "Oh my god..." The older woman gently swatted Holtzmann's hand away from where she had been limply gripping at her shoulder and put her hands there instead, careful to avoid bumping the large nail sticking out of her arm. Patty pressed down in a way that was probably uncomfortable, but needed, stopping the blood from flowing out so fast.

Holtzmann forced a laugh and shook her head slightly. "I'm okay, Patty... Don't freak out..." Her voice sounded so small and weak.

"Baby, you don't look okay..." Patty breathed, holding her friend's shoulder as blood seeped between her fingers and the sound of footfalls behind her caught her attention.

Patty glanced behind her. Kevin had made his way upstairs. He looked worried, but somehow still a lot more calm than Patty felt. "Oooh... That doesn't look good." He frowned.

Holtzmann looked past Patty's shoulder and offered the man a small smile. "Hey, Kevin... Could you call an ambulance?" She asked in a nearly breathless voice. "The number is... Nine. One. One." She spoke slowly, probably concerned that the man might not be able to handle it. "Tell 'em somebody here's got a very large nail stuck through her shoulder. Kay? And that she's bleeding a lot." She nodded. "You got that? Nine. One. One. Get a pad of paper and we can write it down-"

"I got it..." He breathed, disappearing back toward the stairs.

Holtzmann exhaled and leaned her head back against the wall under the desk as she closed her eyes again with a pained grimace. "Oh my god... I hope he knows numbers..." She groaned.

"He does, Baby... Don't be mean." Patty frowned, pressing her hand harder against the wound in Holtzmann's shoulder.

"It's not mean, Patty... He's really dumb." Holtzmann breathed... "Shit, I love the guy as much as anyone... not as much as Erin does... I mean, like a normal amount for someone to love their receptionist... He's a sweet guy, but he's really dumb..."

Patty couldn't help but to laugh a she pulled Holtzmann out from under the desk and tried to inspect her injury further. She leaned Holtzmann forward toward her slightly and looked at the back of her arm where the nail would have come out the other side if it had gone in far enough.

While she was happy to see that the nail hadn't torn entirely through, she wasn't sure if that meant it had hit bone - maybe the injury would be worse since the nail didn't pass through completely. She also couldn't say she was happy with the fact that Holtzmann was practically behaving like a rag doll. She was fairly limp and looked like she felt dizzy as her unfocused eyes blinked in confusion.

"God, that is a big nail..." Patty muttered to herself, trying to stay calm for Holtzy's sake as she leaned the smaller woman back against her chest so that she could both hold her up and apply pressure to the wound.

"Yeah. Thanks." Holtzmann coughed, looking around herself as though in a fog. The younger woman frowned, swallowed, and blinked her eyes in confusion. She looked like she wasn't sure what she was seeing. "Is my desk on fire?" She whispered breathlessly.

"No... I don't think so." Patty answered, glancing toward the desk just in case. There was no smoke. It looked like the invention exploded and that was it. It hadn't caught fire. She glanced back down toward her friend, narrowing her eyes and looking the woman over. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"Not that matters." Holtzmann breathed, her head hanging slightly forward as though she was falling asleep.

"Holtzy, look at me." Patty spoke in a serious tone. "Stay awake, Baby."

Holtzmann swallowed and blinked her eyes back open, looking up and backwards as she leaned her head against Patty's chest. In that moment, her eyes were very wide and her bottom lip was trembling. She looked terrified, but was clearly doing her best to remain calm.

"Good, Baby. Just keep looking at me..." Patty forced a smile, but it fell immediately when she felt something wet and sticky on her chest. "I'm gonna lean you forward a little bit, Holtzy." She told the other woman, carefully putting her free hand against Holtzmann's hair and pushing her head down slightly.

She frowned as she noticed a spot on Holtzmann's light blonde hair was stained red. She pushed Holtzmann's hair back a little, trying to find the source of the blood, which dripped down from somewhere behind Holtzmann's ear, onto her shoulder, and rolled down into her shirt.

"What're you doing?" Holtzmann wondered in a tired voice that almost sounded drunk.

"You must have hit your head... I don't think it's bad..." Patty promised. It was definitely bleeding, but no where near as profusely as her shoulder was.

With a pout and a soft whimper, Holtzmann reached her hand up to the back of her head, feeling the wet spot there and groaning when she brought her fingers back down where she could see them.

"Shhh... You're okay..." Patty assured her, pulling her close so that she was leaning against Patty's chest again. The older woman wrapped her arms across Holtzmann's chest, holding one hand firmly over her injured shoulder. For now, she ignored the wound on the back of Holtzmann's head. It seemed minor compared to the other, even if it was staining the front of Patty's shirt. "Just try to stay awake..." She urged. "Don't panic..." Patty's voice was shaking. She couldn't help it.

"I'm not..." Holtzmann whispered. Her voice was shaking too. Patty being so obviously nervous was probably making Holtzmann more nervous.

"I know." Patty tried to sound more calm, even though inside she was fully panicked. "Just stay calm. You're gonna be fine. This isn't a big deal. You're gonna be fine."

She felt Holtz shaking slightly under her touch, but the woman didn't say anything more. Patty hadn't meant to create fear and panic in her friend. She was trying so hard to appear calm for Holtzmann's sake... She supposed she just wasn't good at it.

"They're on their way." Kevin noted as he made his way back into the room. He was carrying the phone in his hand - but it was a land line with a cord hanging down from the bottom of it. He'd unplugged the receiver, apparently.

"Please tell me that wasn't unplugged when you made the call..." Patty groaned. She tried to be nice and not make fun of Kevin blatantly in front of his face, but damn... Was Kevin's mind flawed enough that he could think he was talking to someone on the phone when said phone wasn't even functioning? Surely he didn't go through an entire phone conversation with a person who didn't exist. He couldn't have made a real call with the phone unplugged...

Kevin shook his head. "Nope. It was plugged in. I told the lady everything and then said I wanted to get back up here. See if I could help. She asked me to stay on the line, so I made it a mobile." He held up the phone and smirked.

"Kevin... You're so precious." Holtzmann mumbled as she stared up at him. She winced as Patty pressed against her arm harder.

"Aww. Thanks." He smiled, kneeling down in front of them. "So are you, Jillian."

"So they're coming? You definitely talked to someone and they're definitely coming? You spoke to a real human person, not make-believe, and they're on their way here right now in real life?" Patty asked, feeling an overwhelming need to make sure Kevin hadn't somehow screwed the task up.

"Yeah. She said stay on the line. Wanna talk to her?" He held the phone out.

Patty rolled her eyes reached for the phone. "These don't stay connected when you unplug them." She told him.

"Yeah, they do." He pulled the phone back, putting it up against his ear. "Hello?" He paused a second, frowned, and pulled the phone away from his ear. Staring down at it as though expecting it to do something. He put it back against his ear again. "Um... Hello? Nine hundred eleven? You still there?" He frowned and shrugged, then placed the phone on Holtzmann's desk. "Hm... Maybe you're right."

"I am." Patty nodded.

Their attention was drawn back to Holtzmann when the woman groaned in pain. She weakly reached her hand up toward her shoulder.

"Don't bother that, Holtzy." Patty told the woman what she was pretty sure she already knew. She didn't think Holtzmann was planning to try to remove the nail herself, but figured she should make sure. Holtzmann probably wasn't fully in her right mind at the moment and just reached instinctively toward her shoulder because it hurt.

"I could get that out for you." Kevin nodded toward the nail.

Holtzmann shook her head. He started to reach out, which caused Holtzmann's eyes to widen as she shrunk down and Patty pulled her back slightly.

"No... No, Kevin..." Patty told him, hugging her small friend protectively as she shook her head. "You're never supposed to remove something you've gotten stabbed with. Taking it out would cause the bleeding to get worse."

Kevin frowned. "Even if I cauterize it?"

Holtzmann stared back with huge eyes and her mouth hanging open slightly. "Where did you learn that word?" She whispered in a voice that, though tiny, sounded to be in pure awe.

"Kevin, did they say how long before they'd get here?" Patty interrupted.

Kevin shrugged. "Couple minutes?"

Holtzmann groaned softly and felt like she was growing limp. She looked like she was half asleep, even though she was obviously trying not to be. Holtzmann's blue eyes looked a bit glassy as she stared up at the ceiling, furrowing her brows as though she was nothing short of bewildered. "You sure my desk isn't on fire?" She whispered in an increasingly weak voice as she was clearly struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Holtzy..." Patty put her free hand lightly on Holtzmann's forehead. "Stay awake, Baby..."

"Jillian. Try to stay awake, Sweetheart." Kevin sat down on the floor in front of Holtzmann and picked up the woman's small hand in his own larger one, holding it gently as he narrowed his eyes. He looked so worried. Patty frowned. She hadn't ever felt like Kevin cared much if they lived or died, but maybe he did.

Patty could see that the younger woman's eyelids were growing too heavy for her to keep her eyes open, but she was clearly trying to stay awake. Each of her blinks were long, and when she did open her eyes, she only did so just barely and didn't look entirely focused. "I think my desk is on fire, Patty." She breathed.

"It's not, Holtzy." Patty shook her head and put more pressure against Holtzmann's shoulder with her hand. "Hey, can you look up here at me?" She requested. "I want to ask you something..." She didn't know what she was going to ask, but was trying to keep her friend interested enough to stay awake.

"I don't think..." Holtzmann spoke slowly, pausing in mid-sentence and seeming to lose her train of thought as she closed her eyes again for a long few seconds before clearly struggling to force them back open. "Patty, I'm really tired." She breathed.

"Baby, I know." Patty hugged her tighter, pressing her hand more firmly against her bleeding wound. "Just try to stay awake a little longer. Open your eyes and look at me. I don't remember what color your eyes are." She lied. "Can you open them back up so I can see them?"

"Yes you do." Holtzmann slurred, but she didn't move to open her eyes.

"Honey, I don't remember. You gotta let me see 'em." Patty tried again.

Holtzmann exhaled tiredly and all but ignored Patty as she shook her head very subtly. "Yours're brown." She breathed.

"I know what color mine are. I want to see yours, Holtzy. Can you look at me? Just for a minute." Patty asked.

Holtzmann swallowed and shook her head very slightly. "I don't know." She mumbled.

"Weird that she can sleep while bleeding so much." Kevin noted. "I think I'd be in too much pain."

Holtzmann let out a tiny, breathless laugh as her lips pulled into a slight smile, but she still wasn't opening her eyes. She clearly appreciated the unintentional humor in Kevin's comments.

"Open your eyes, Holtzy." Patty urged again.

It was clear Holtzmann was trying to do as Patty asked, as her eyes fluttered as she weakly squeezed Kevin's hand, but she said nothing, and couldn't seem to keep her eyes open long enough for Patty to even be sure she was aware of herself.

"Pretty sure her eyes are blue, Patty." Kevin noted.

Patty exhaled and shook her head slightly. "I know, Kevin. I'm just trying to keep her awake."

"Oh." Kevin frowned and looked down at the engineer. "Hey, Jillian. Can you open your eyes?" Kevin repeated Patty's request, furrowing his brows and looking at the older woman. "Why aren't we letting her sleep again?" He asked with confusion evident in his features.

"I'm scared she won't wake back up." Patty breathed, feeling her chest growing tight as she heard her own voice putting one of her worst fears into words.

"I'll be alright." Holtzmann mumbled in a tiny, slightly slurred voice, almost as though talking in her sleep.

"I know you will." Patty felt tears in her eyes. What if that wasn't true? She looked back up at Kevin. "You really did call them, right? The ambulance is coming?" She was starting to worry that maybe he really had misunderstood and had somehow failed to actually call them.

"They're coming, Patty." Kevin frowned. "I promise."

"Good." Holtzmann breathed, still sounding exhausted and not bothering to open her eyes. She seemed to be relaxing in Patty's arms, no longer squirming in discomfort or breathing in such a way that would indicate that she was panicked or in pain.

Patty gripped her tighter, closing her own eyes and breathing in steadying breaths. She was so worried.

Holtzmann let out a small breath and a tiny whimper as Patty felt the younger woman fall limp in her arms.

"Holtzy?" Patty frowned, shaking the younger woman gently. She didn't make any indication that she had heard the older woman. She seemed to have passed out. Patty held her breath as she pulled her friend closer against her chest.

"Is she gonna be alright?" Kevin sounded truly, genuinely worried now, and his hand around Holtzmann's gripped tighter as the woman no longer squeezed back.

"Yeah... She's gotta be..." Patty assured both him and herself... But she couldn't ignore the fact that Holtzmann was no longer responsive at all. "She's still breathing... Right?" Patty heard her voice shaking again. She thought she felt Holtzmann's chest rising and falling slightly under her arm, but her own heart and breaths were so erratic right now, it was hard to say.

Kevin leaned down closer, putting his hand over Holtzmann's heart and nodding. "Yeah. She is... I can feel her lungs beating." He noted, possibly not understanding the difference between breaths and a heartbeat... "She's totally out though, Patty..." He frowned, looking up into Patty's eyes. "Maybe we should get her downstairs."

Patty nodded, and didn't argue when Kevin carefully yet effortlessly lifted Holtzmann out of her grip. The older woman couldn't help but to frown at the sight of her young friend lying so limply in the receptionist's arms.

As Kevin carried the young engineer, Patty pressed her hand against the woman's wound as she walked alongside him toward the stairs.

"I think I hear the ambulance." He commented as they made their way quickly but carefully down the stairs and toward the front door, pausing in the firehouse's lobby as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

Keeping her one hand on Holtzmann's shoulder, Patty placed the other against the younger woman's cheek. She looked so tiny and helpless in Kevin's arms, unconscious and covered in blood.

They were greeted by two paramedics, who rushed in with a gurney and quickly situated Holtzmann, pressing gauze over her wound and attaching an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose as Patty breathlessly rattled off as much information as she could.

"She was working on a project upstairs... like an invention... and I guess it exploded. A nail got embedded in her shoulder... It's been bleeding a lot. We tried putting pressure on it, but it just kept bleeding. And she hit the back of her head, so she could have a concussion." Patty explained. "She was awake for a couple minutes, up until just now... She seemed kind of confused."

"Was she talking, answering questions or anything?" The paramedic asked.

Patty nodded. "Yeah. At first. She was pretty talkative."

"And she was making sense?" He glanced up at her and then back down at Holtzmann.

"Mostly, yeah." Patty answered. "She kept asking if her desk was on fire... I kept saying it wasn't, but she couldn't let that go. Beyond that, she was pretty normal..."

The paramedic nodded but didn't take his eyes off of his patient. "Alright. We're gonna take good care of her, Ma'am. Do you know her blood type?"

Patty shook her head. Maybe that was something they should have all discussed before now.

"That's alright." The paramedic assured.

Patty felt tears in her eyes as she watched them work on her petite friend. Holtzmann looked so small and vulnerable lying there totally motionless as the paramedics worked their magic, cutting the sleeve of her shirt and securely pressing gauze over her arm, around the protruding nail.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Patty asked in a breathless voice as she felt Kevin's hand on her arm.

"We're going to do everything we can for her." One of the medics answered. "She's in good hands."

The paramedics made quick work of loading her up in the ambulance. They told Patty and Kevin which hospital they were going to, advised them to go to the ER there, and sped off.

"I'll drive." Kevin offered.

"Okay." Patty whispered, nodding and swallowing. Ordinarily she wouldn't have trusted Kevin to drive, but she couldn't bring herself to care this time.

xxxxxx


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your continued interest. This story's only got a couple more chapters to go... Then we can get to the really fun, dramatic, traumatizing ones. I've got two more Ghostbusters stories on the way and they're both fairly long - over 30,000 words each. This one "Don't Panic" is a sort of mini story, and as far as drama and pain goes, it's actually really mild compared to what I normally publish. I can do worse (or better.) ;) My next two are more my usual style - long and violent. I think you'll all like them. :)

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CHAPTER 3

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Patty leaned her head back and exhaled tiredly as she sat in a waiting room alongside Kevin.

Holtzmann had been taken into surgery and though Patty and Kevin had been given a few vague updates, they were still both pretty reasonably worried about their young friend. The doctor had said that no news was good news - that not hearing anything for a while wasn't a bad thing - that it meant nothing unexpected had happened... But Patty was beginning to feel very antsy. She needed to know that Holtzmann was going to be completely fine after all this. Not getting that confirmation immediately was excruciating.

She had called Abby and Erin and let them know what was going on, but the had had to travel to Pennsylvania to meet the people who thought their hotel was haunted. They wouldn't be able to get back to New York for another few hours... She was stuck just texting them with the precious few updates given. Of course, them being here wouldn't change anything... but at least they'd all be together.

She wasn't sure how long they had been waiting here. She didn't think to look at the clock until thirty minutes ago... so it had been quite a bit longer than thirty minutes... She had no idea how much time had passed before she thought to start keeping track.

It had taken her a while to calm down enough to even look around the room and process where she even was right now. Fortunately for her sake, Kevin was pretty calm in a chaotic situation. He and Holtzmann seemed to share that quality. He had driven them here and led the way into the ER, keeping his hand on Patty's arm the whole time, making sure she came along with him.

For all his faults, he certainly beat her on remaining calm when it mattered... If he hadn't been here with her, the nurses probably would have had to have a staff member come sit with her, because she felt so entirely anxious and lost the second she got here.

As she sat still and quiet in the increasingly uncomfortable hospital chair, Patty leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She couldn't get the image of Holtzmann out of her head.

The young engineer had remained so calm during the whole ordeal, but Patty couldn't deny that she had seen a glimmer of fear in the woman's eyes. As calm and collected as Holtzmann usually was, in that moment she was definitely scared, and that broke Patty's heart.

Holtzmann was a very independent person. She was weird and sometimes unintentionally chaotic and destructive, but she really was fairly self-reliant. Judging by her few instances of mentioning never having close friends or family, Patty assumed the woman kind of had to learn to rely mostly on herself - and she was pretty good at it. Even when she got injured or accidentally lit something on fire, she usually calmly dealt with it on her own and moved on. Patty was pretty sure that had been the woman's plan today too.

Patty hadn't gone upstairs because Holtzmann called for help or screamed... She hadn't heard pleas or tears or anything at all that would indicate something was wrong besides that initial explosion. Holtzmann was heavily bleeding, with a large nail protruding from her arm. She had hit her head and had blood dripping from that too... and yet it took Patty and Kevin coming up there for her to finally ask for help.

The sight of Holtzmann's blood smeared and dripped all over the floor was haunting. If Patty didn't go up there, would Holtzmann have just passed out all alone? Was she too proud to ask for help, or was she just so used to depending on herself that she had forgotten that asking for assistance was even an option? Patty would have to remember to have a talk with her later - to make sure Holtzmann knew Patty was always available to help if needed - that if Holtzmann ever got injured in any way beyond a scratch or bruise, she needed to let her friends know so nothing even worse than this ever happened.

"Maybe she should start wearing some kind of armor or something." Kevin suggested, breaking the silence in the room with a shrug.

Patty frowned and glanced over at him. She kind of wanted to be mad. It sounded like he was making a joke... But when she noticed his face, it quickly became clear that he wasn't trying to be funny. He was trying to be helpful.

Kevin looked positively sad as he sat in the chair across from Patty, looking down at his hands, which were clasped together in his lap. "She's gotta change something if her inventions are just gonna blow up like that. What if she was the only one there when it happened? She should be more careful." He sounded genuinely hurt.

Patty furrowed her brow as she stared back at him. She didn't think she'd ever seen him this serious before.

"You did a good job, Kevin." Patty finally spoke. "You were really calm and careful with her. I appreciate that a lot, and I'm sure she does too."

"Really?" She saw a hint of a smile at the corner of his lips, but his eyes still looked sad.

"Yes, really." Patty promised.

"Thanks, Patty." He smiled. "I tried my best... I was pretty scared when I came upstairs and saw all that blood..." Kevin frowned, looking back down at his hands.

"Yeah." Patty nodded. "Me too."

"I just wanted to help... to make sure she was alright. I hope she will be..." He looked past Patty's shoulder, staring at the wall as though deep in distracting thought.

"She will be. She's got to be okay, Kevin. There's no other option." Patty frowned.

"Yeah..." He spoke in a small voice. "I really hope so... I know I haven't really known you guys for all that long, but I feel like we all really jive together. I don't want anything to jeopardize that. You know, you girls are like my little sisters." He noted.

Patty stared back at him with raised eyebrows. The man was in his early thirties. Holtzmann was a bit younger than him, but the rest of them weren't. Patty was almost fifty.

"Honey, I'm older than you are. We all are, except Holtzy..." Patty reminded him.

"Oh." Kevin frowned and looked Patty up and down, nodding slowly as though understanding. "Well, even so, I'd be devastated if anything ever happened to any of you. I know we all just work together... Like, you guys hired me to exist around you, but this is more than just a job to me. I really care about you guys."

Patty smiled. "Right back at you, Kevin."

Kevin frowned. "What does that mean? Back at me?"

Patty inhaled and exhaled, shaking her head slightly. "Means we like you too." She explained.

"Ah." He nodded. "You know, I always wanted a sister or two as a child." He went on.

"Are you an only child?" Patty wondered.

"No." He shook his head.

"Brothers?" She asked.

"No." He frowned. "I don't have any siblings."

"So you're an only child." Patty stared.

"No. I'm not a child... and certainly wouldn't be the only one if I were." He stared at her as though she was an idiot. "I'm an adult, Patty." He told her in a slow, careful voice.

Patty exhaled, choosing not to explain further. It would probably just confuse him more. "So you wanted sisters?" She asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I kinda like having something cute to be friends with and take care of. That's why I get along so well with Mike Hat."

"Your dog." Patty remembered.

"Right. He's little and energetic and cute. Crazy little goofball. I love him. You girls are the same. I mean, you're pretty tall, Patty, but you're still cute and feisty and fun. The other three girls are tiny. What are they, like four feet tall? I love 'em."

Patty laughed. "They are pretty short." She agreed.

"They're tiny!" He chuckled. "I swear to God, Jillian weighs like twelve pounds. I should carry you guys around all the time. It'd probably be fun."

Patty shrugged. He sure as hell wasn't going to be picking her up any time soon. She didn't doubt that he was capable, but Patty wasn't really one for letting anyone attempt to carry her anywhere. For one, she was so tall it wasn't easy for most human beings to just carry her around like a child. And two - she didn't trust anyone not to drop her. Certain people - like Holtzmann - didn't seem to mind being picked up and carried around like a little kid, but Patty did mind it. Very much so.

"You know we're not your pets though, right?" If anything, Kevin was more like a pet to them than the other way around. He barely managed to do even half of his job most of the time. Patty was pretty sure the only reason he wasn't fired within the first days of his employment was because of Erin's crush on the man.

"Sure." He nodded. "But I like you guys anyway." He smiled.

"Just make sure you ask them before trying to pick any of 'em up, Kevin." She reminded him. She didn't doubt that Erin wouldn't mind a bit. Holtzmann probably wouldn't either... Even so, he probably needed to ask before just randomly grabbing any of them.

Both Patty and Kevin looked up toward the waiting room's door as they heard a knock, followed by a doctor coming through. "Hello." He nodded to each of them. "Jillian is out of surgery. Everything went fine. The nail actually did very little damage. She had a shard of plastic embedded in her shoulder too. That's where most of the blood was coming from. No serious damage there either. She's got eight stitches. Didn't need any on her head... but we are going to keep her overnight for observation. She lost a lot of blood and is probably going to be feeling pretty weak for a day or so."

"Did she need a transfusion?" Patty asked.

The doctor shook his head. "Not quite. It was good you guys got her here quickly. We were able to slow the bleeding fairly early on. There are risks associated with transfusions, so we don't do it if we don't have to. She didn't lose enough blood to require it - close, but not quite there."

"Is she awake? Can we see her?" Patty wondered.

"She'll be waking up soon. A nurse will come by and let you know when you can see her." The doctor answered.

"She's gonna be fine though?" Kevin asked.

The doctor nodded. "We expect a full recovery. She'll have to come back to get the stitches removed, but beyond that, she should be good as new in a couple days."

xxxxxx


	4. Chapter 4

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CHAPTER 4

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Holtzmann groaned and exhaled a somewhat shaky breath as she struggled to blink her eyes open. She felt entirely confused. The last thing she remembered was Patty and Kevin kneeling over her, their comforting hands on her arms and hands, their worried voices speaking to her, urging her to keep her eyes open... Kevin saying something dumb she couldn't quite remember...

Then what? She must have passed out.

"Jillian?" Someone's voice spoke next to her.

She tiredly turned her head as her heavy eyelids refused to fully open. Maybe she should just let sleep take her back. She was so exhausted.

So she stopped trying to lift her eyelids for a moment. Maybe she fell back asleep. Maybe not. She groaned again as she tried to lift her hand toward her head, but stopped when a sharp pain shot through her shoulder. Oh yeah... That's where she probably was - a hospital... Because she had been bleeding profusely from a large nail sticking out of her arm.

"Jillian? Ms. Holtzmann?" The voice continued to her right.

With a tired exhale, Holtzmann finally managed to turn her head and keep her eyes open at the same time. She swallowed dryly and stared up at a man in hospital scrubs. He wore a name tag that said 'Danny.'

"You awake, Hon?" He asked.

Holtzmann stared up at him and then closed her eyes. "No." She groaned in a tired voice.

She heard a small laugh come from the nurse before he went on. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"

"Yeah." She answered. Her voice sounded so tired and slurred. They must have given her pretty good pain meds... but they weren't good enough. "My shoulder feels like someone stabbed me." She elaborated.

"Do you remember what happened?" Danny asked.

Holtzmann nodded and swallowed, her dry throat burning a bit as she did so. "Kind of." She answered.

"And?" He asked, clearly wanting her to explain it - maybe because he didn't know - maybe because he wanted to make sure her brain was all there.

"My ectoplasm analyzer blew up." Holtzmann pouted, remembering that all her progress was gone... "I had jammed nails in it because I ran out of screws. Then..." She nodded toward her shoulder. "Guess that's what I get for cutting corners."

"Do you remember anything else?" He asked.

She nodded. "Got stabbed with the nail... I guess I hit my head, but I don't really remember that part. Patty just said I must have because it was bleeding. Lots of blood from my shoulder... Like gushing. Patty and Kevin were there and then I passed out. Now this." She looked around the small room and shrugged with her uninjured shoulder.

Danny smiled. "Well, you're at the hospital now. We took you into surgery and stitched up your shoulder. You also had a piece of plastic from your, uh... ecto-analyzing machine... or whatever you said... You had plastic from that in your arm too. The surgeon removed it and stitched you up. No stitches were needed in the cut on the back of your head. It probably seemed more serious than it was. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot. We're going to keep you here overnight for observation, but if all goes well, which it should, you'll be going home tomorrow."

Holtzmann nodded slowly, looking past the man and toward the room's door. She'd been in situations like this before - usually without so much loss of memory - she didn't often lose consciousness thanks to her lab errors - if she had, she'd have probably been left on the floor alone until she woke up to get herself to the ER. For such a long time, she didn't have friends or anything even close to resembling friends. Patty and Kevin had made sure she got here. She wondered if they were still here. Would they come in and visit? Or did they just drop her off and go back to their regular lives?

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your current pain? Ten being the worst?" The nurse cut in to her distracted thoughts.

Holtzmann shrugged. "If I hold still, maybe a three... If I move... five?" She never knew how to answer that question.

"Okay. We can get you some pain killers for that." He told her. "Would you like Juice? Crackers? Cookies?"

Holtzmann's eyes shot open. This was her chance. "Do you have Pringles?" She whispered.

"Uh..." He frowned. "I don't think so..."

"Aw..." Holtzmann pouted as her shoulders slumped. "You have cookies but you don't have Pringles?" She raised her eyebrow. She understood that Pringles weren't healthy and that a hospital might not endorse them, but why cookies then?

"They're just really simple cookies. They don't taste that good." He promised. "Closest thing to Pringles would probably be the saltines."

Holtzmann rolled her eyes and shook her head. "That... is offensive." She looked up at him. He was smiling. He looked like he was ready to laugh.

"We have popsicles." He offered.

"Hmmm..." Holtzmann hesitated. "Okay. I guess..."

"Grape, Orange, or Cherry?" He asked.

Holtzmann sighed. "You don't even have blue..." She shook her head in disappointment. "Cherry..." She compromised.

He nodded and walked off.

Holtzmann smiled as she saw another nurse walking through the door the first one had just left through, followed by two unmistakable, tall figures.

"Patty! Kevin!" Holtzmann reached her hand up as they approached. She was already feeling a little more aware of herself. It had taken a second to come around, but she felt fairly normal now, besides the general pain and slight lethargy.

"Hey, Baby." Patty gripped her hand, squeezing and smiling down at Holtzmann with tears in her eyes.

"Hi, Patty." Holtzmann spoke back, feeling somewhat nervous now that she saw how emotional Patty obviously was. She looked over the woman's shoulder at Kevin, who looked similarly emotional. Holtzmann frowned. "What's wrong with you guys?"

"You scared the hell out of us, Holtzy..." Patty answered. She sounded so sad.

"Sorry." Holtzmann looked down. "I didn't mean to..."

"Honey, we know... We're not mad. We were just really scared." Patty assured her.

Holtzmann nodded. It was strange having real friends... Friends who would cry if you got injured and they thought you might die. Wait... Did they think that? Holtzmann was sort of starting to think she might die back at the firehouse when she felt like she couldn't keep her eyes open and the blood soaking through her shirt wouldn't stop flowing... Did Patty and Kevin think so too? She did have a huge chunk of time missing from her memory... She had totally passed out in their arms and didn't wake up again until now. She really did scare them.

"I'm really sorry..." She said again, staring up at Patty, and then toward Kevin. "I never used to have anyone paying that much attention... Usually I just scare myself, and I'm used to it, so it's not entirely unexpected. I mean, I did kinda think death was a possibility for a minute... Then I passed out and didn't have to think about it anymore... I guess I left you guys hanging."

"You've got friends now, Holtzy." Patty reminded her. "Friends who truly, honestly love you. You've gotta be more careful."

Holtzmann smiled and looked down at the sheet covering her legs. Love was such a strong word, but she really believed Patty when the older woman said it... and that made her feel really happy. She'd gone most of her life without any real friends, and now all of a sudden she had four. People who cried for her when she was hurt... who obviously didn't mind wearing her blood on their shirts for hours.

"Thanks for helping me." She blurted. It wasn't always easy for her to admit she needed help, or to remember that there were people around who would gladly offer her their help. Often she forgot to ask, even when she really needed it. She could only guess that was why she took so long to even think about calling downstairs to her two friends who she knew full-well were right there. She just figured she could handle it on her own. She handled so much on her own...

"Any time, Jillian." Kevin smiled, putting his hand near her ankle and squeezing lightly.

Patty nodded. "Don't be afraid to ask for help, Holtzy. If you ever get hurt at all, tell me. Even if you don't think it's a big deal... I'd rather you ask me to help you and not actually need me than have you not ask and end up being in real trouble."

Holtzmann nodded. That made sense.

"Jillian." Kevin spoke from the end of the bed as he put his hand over one of her feet over the sheets. He looked down as though embarrassed as he hesitated to finish whatever he'd wanted to say.

"Yeah?" She looked up at him. Her voice still sounded raspy. She hoped that nurse would come back with her popsicle soon... and maybe some water. Perhaps he was right about Pringles not being such a great idea.

He squeezed her toes before looking up at her with a soft smile. "I'm really glad you didn't die."

"Oh..." Holtzmann nodded. "Yeah... Me too. Sorry I got blood all over you." She shrugged her uninjured shoulder.

"That's okay." He smiled, but his face grew serious as the nurse from before entered the room, walking past Kevin and up toward Holtzmann.

Danny, the nurse, handed Holtz the popsicle, and put a small cup of water and a tiny paper cup with a pill in it on the table next to the bed. "That'll help with the pain." He offered.

Holtzmann nodded and swallowed the pill, but she couldn't stop focusing her attention on Kevin, who looked like a frog might look if the nurse were a fly.

"Is everything okay?" The nurse frowned, glancing toward Kevin and then back at Holtzmann.

"Yeah..." Holtz answered, furrowing her brow and staring at Kevin still. The way the man was staring wide-eyed at the nurse, one would think Danny was some mythological being.

"Hey... Where'd that popsicle come from?" Kevin asked, finally answering the mystery of why he was staring at the guy like a lunatic.

"We keep small snacks like that for patients after surgery." The nurse answered with an incredulous laugh. "Do you guys have any questions for me? I'll be back to check in in a couple hours otherwise."

Holtzmann and Patty both shook their heads.

"I have a question." Kevin spoke up.

"Yeah?" Danny looked back at the man.

"Could I have one of those popsicles?" He asked.

With a shake of his head and even a slight eye-roll, Danny looked back toward Holtzmann. "If you need anything, the call button is here." He gestured toward a little remote attached to the bed. He looked back up toward Patty and Kevin. "You two are welcome to stay as long as you'd like. She's probably going to be pretty tired once that pill kicks in, but you can stay if she doesn't mind. I'll be back in a bit, Jillian." He said to Holtzmann before smiling and heading toward the door.

"Wait." Kevin started following him. "I don't think a popsicle is too much to ask for."

Danny exhaled and continued toward the door. "They're really only supposed to be for patients."

"I've been really patient!" Kevin whined, following the guy out the door an into the hallway. "Nobody was more patient than me. I was in that waiting room for like four hours!"

Holtzmann and Patty stared at the door, then turned toward each other at the same time and both smirked.

"He told me he loves you like a little sister, Holtzy." Patty told her.

Holtzmann smiled and looked down. She really loved Kevin too - like a weirdly dumb older brother. He sure did a lot of stupid things, but somehow it was endearing, and he did seem to have a good heart under it all. "That's really nice." She said in a small voice.

"He really did. He said you're cute and energetic and that he wouldn't mind picking you up and carrying you around more often." Patty went on.

"Oh... That could be fun." She mused.

"That's what he said." Patty laughed. "He carried you downstairs after you passed out."

"He did?" Holtzmann frowned and looked up at Patty. That's probably why her blood was all over the front of his shirt.

Patty nodded. "We were both so damn worried about you." She looked very serious now. "You were bleeding so much, and kept seeming like you were gonna pass out in mid-sentence. You were acting so confused. Kept asking if your desk was on fire over and over, after I told you it wasn't."

"Oh..." Holtzmann remembered. "The analyzer blew up right there. It was smoking... The whole room looked smoky... Maybe it was from the blood loss though... I mean, everything looked really hazy. It was probably because I was seconds from passing out the whole time." She laughed.

"Mm hm..." Patty frowned as she sat down on the edge of the bed and gripped Holtzmann's hand in hers. "We need to get you some kind of emergency button to wear on a bracelet or necklace or something."

"Life Alert." Holtzmann smirked and nodded. She was starting to feel tired again. "Could you put this somewhere and I'll finish it later?" She asked Patty, offering up half of the popsicle she'd been working on.

"Baby, that's gonna melt. I'm sure they'll get you another if you ask. Can I just throw it away?" Patty asked as she took it from her friend.

Holtzmann nodded and yawned.

She closed her eyes and leaned closer toward the edge of the bed, squeezing Patty's hand in hers. She felt some of her hair fall over her face, but she was too tired to bother moving it.

Then she felt Patty's hand carefully brush the hair behind her ear for her. "I love you, Holtzy." The older woman spoke in a small voice Holtzmann barely heard.

The younger woman felt a smile tugging at her lips. "I love you too, Patty." She whispered.

xxxxxx


End file.
